


Murals

by TheLadyTeddy



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: AU, Gangs AU, Street artist au, graffiti artist au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 01:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3509873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyTeddy/pseuds/TheLadyTeddy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They show up sporadically, in random places surrounding the city, no one knows who does them but everyone agrees that they're beautiful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Murals

1.

First there is a boy, African American, his face turned towards a sky of merging constellations and clouds, a two faced sun and moon dangling above his head. He stands on a stone well as a bloody knife falls into it’s depths.

He looks sad, but there is hope in his eyes as the image stands high above the smoggy atmosphere of the city.

Everyone thinks it’s an amazing work of art done in spray paint, with colors as vibrant as the city below, even if the mural is painted over the next week with white paint.

2.

The second is a girl, turning, leaping from the wreckage of a smoking car whose hood is smashed like an accordion; flames peeked out from the slats of red metal and blood seeps from the door pooling onto the gray edges. Her eyes are dark, violent even as her arms arch behind the strong curve of her back, the limbs turning into wings made of gears and wires seeping with oil instead of feathers, a single leg tethering her to the ground as she desperately attempts to fly away.

This one is on the side of a bus as it moves along through the city, past the worst and best areas so everyone can see who marvel as the imagery made in spray paint.  


It’s covered by an advertisement for tooth paste not two months later.

3.

The next one is of another girl, only she’s running, eyes set forward as her dark hair flies back from a delicately carved face, the strands of hair turning into intricacy woven braids. There is a sword on her hip and a bright red heart on her wrist. The concrete box she escapes from slowly morphs into a deep forest that she sprints through, feet flying over roots and rocks that attempt to bar her way.

This one is found on the sidewalk, people walking over step back to stare for a few breathtaking moments. People stop to mimic the pose of the sprinter, lying on the ground in line with her body or shadowing it in the late afternoon sun.

It lasts for a long while until feet and weather fade it out until it’s simply an outline on gray stone.

4.

The next is a king, standing on a burning wreckage of who looks like a shuttle or spaceship, one hundred lines are burned into the side of it, a smoking gun handing from his hand. He is a conqueror or a fallen king, no one quite knows. However, his eyes are the same as the sprinting girl, on his head is a crown of sharp metal and wooden spikes and his scepter is a spear dripping in blood made of silver.

He’s found on a brick wall on Broadway, intense dark eyes staring at the world. Watching and protecting all that stop to stare at his image.  


It takes two days before he’s covered up.

5.

There is a boy with necklaces around his neck, hands tied behind him to a post jutting out of a star that is going supernova below his feet. One necklace shows a two-faced deer, one head looking east and the other west, the other shows a raven looking south, the boy’s face is turning north; staring upward though you could only see the outline of his jaw and lips. The backdrop is black and the rest of the image is black and white, except for the peace sign painted on his chest in dripping red like blood.

He is found covering a billboard over a movie house; the owners keep it up there for the sake of it being ‘art’ and it stays there for years to come until the building is sold to an housing development committee who destroy the image.

6.

The next is a woman, eyes covered in thick kohl around stunning green eyes and what looks like tearstains dripping down one cheek though her chin is set forward and her lips are in a thin line. She is leading a faceless mass into battle, a single arm thrown above her head and from it a sword with a scrap of red fabric hanging from it’s handle. From her hanging fingertips at her other side is a thick brown braid, and in her palm a broken heart trapped in a cage. She is regal, strong, a warrior queen come to conquer, but her feet cemented into the ground before her.

She lies on the front of a coffee shop who leave the image there for years to come until it meets the same fate as the boy with the necklaces.

7.

The next is the only one with two distinct figures, their hands intertwined at the base of their spines as they face opposite directions. One boy is reaching out for a faceless girl with with a mass of curling hair and a cloud tattoo wrapped around her wrist that is reaching for his hand though her back is turned to him, the boy’s mouth is laughing but his eyes are filled with sorrow, heavy dark sunglasses hanging from the dip of his shirt. The second figure is male as well, his slanted eyes casting backwards at his partner in equal parts fear and loyalty, at his feet are a mass of opened bottles and wires, grass twining around his legs. 

They are on the side of a building the park and it takes a week before the image is covered.

8\. 

It’s not as pretty as the others, or as finely painted on the wall of the courthouse. Sloppy even compared to the other works. It’s a girl, with fine gold hair and a tiara made of stars and flowers, at her feet is a pool of blood a smoking gun lying in the middle of the messy site, in her each hand there is a different object, in her right a scalpel and spray can in her left. Her clothing is blue and her skin pale, her face is serene though her eyes are filled with a king of hardness that don’t match the relaxed lines of her body.  


The mural lasts seven days before it’s covered.

Everyone watches as it’s covered and they feel some sort of peace that they didn’t get at her actual funeral when her body is lowered into the ground.

Clarke lived for moments, art, for minutes and seconds in her life, not blood, and violence that she spent the last years of her life in. She liked making her art and watching it get taken down, like a cycle of creation and destruction. No one understood why it made her feel so good to watch all her hard work taken down. Until that moment when they all sat on the other side of the street, leaning against a building, a bottle passed around in a paper bag and they felt a sort of closure. 

They watched the lines of her body covered that they so carefully sprayed on the side of the building, watch as her eyes covered with white paint so she can no longer watch them. 

They stood together, watching, the King, the Sprinter, the Raven, the Boys, the Commander, those that survived the wreckage of the last three years of gang fights and violence, guns and blood pouring on the streets of their neighborhood. They finally have a new start, a time to spend enjoying moments, seconds and minutes, just as she wanted.

They painted it for her, all she wanted was peace, a new start for all of them and she didn’t even get to see it come to fruition. 

But they can give her soul closure as her image is covered, and give it to themselves.


End file.
